Foundation Announces Publication of John W. Fisher Biography

May 8, 2018

Community Foundation of Randolph County, Inc. Publishes Biography of John W. Fisher,
Former Ball Corporation President, CEO & Chairman

Lisa Jennings, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Randolph County, Inc., announced today that the CFRC has published the biography of John W. Fisher, former Ball Corporation President, CEO & Chairman. The author is Dane Starbuck, attorney and former resident of Winchester who now resides in Carmel, Indiana. The book, entitled What a Life!, was funded through a generous grant from Ball Brothers Foundation, Inc. of Muncie, Indiana.

Fisher was born in 1915 in Walland, Tennessee, before being raised in Maryville, Tennessee, a small town south of Knoxville. He graduated from Maryville High School, the University of Tennessee, and the Harvard Graduate Business School. While a field secretary for Delta Tau Delta Fraternity in Indianapolis, he met Janice Ball, daughter of Edmund B. and Bertha Ball, and they married in 1940. Edmund Ball was one of the original five Ball brothers that founded the family company in the early 1880s in New York state.

Fisher went to work for Ball Brothers in 1942 and rose through the ranks of management until he became President in 1970. Under his leadership Ball Corporation became publicly traded in 1972 and would eventually become a Fortune 500 company. Today Ball Corporation is the largest container manufacturer in the world, a leader in the aerospace industry, and perennially ranked as one of the best places to work among top U.S. companies. It has more than $14 billion in annual revenue, employs approximately 15,000 employees worldwide, and its headquarters are based in Broomfield, Colorado, where it relocated in 1998 after calling Muncie home for more than 110 years.

In addition to his roles at Ball Corporation, Fisher was active with local, state, and national organizations. For instance, he served as President of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of Ball Memorial Hospital, the Ball Brothers Foundation, Inc., and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and as a Director of the New York Stock Exchange. He also served on the board of directors of more than a dozen other for-profit companies and not-for-profit organizations.

“In Indiana, John W. Fisher was one of the most outstanding corporate and community leaders of the 20th Century,” said Starbuck. “In addition to being a tremendous entrepreneur, he also was a leader and philanthropist to dozens of community organizations, especially favoring those in East-Central Indiana.”

The cost of the book is $20 and is available for purchase through the Community Foundation of Randolph County and Minnetrista, Muncie.